The Devil On Your Back
by Ceiphied Knight
Summary: Regina, having just had an informative chat with Mr. Gold, heads to the Storybrooke hospital while thinking upon her past life and the love she had snuffed out between a certain pretty blue-eyed maiden and the Dark One.


**The Devil On Your Back**

_Rumbelle from Regina's POV (oneshot)_

_Spoilers: Pilot, The Thing You Love Most, Skin Deep_

_Rating: T_

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><p>Love. It was a weakness, everyone knew. It had killed more people and caused more suffering than any disease.<p>

Regina smiled. She had never let love conquer her. She almost had, once, but she'd learned her lesson.

Some people, though, no matter how old and wise they may _think _they are, were just as burdened by it.

Regina had never even let herself get too attached to her adopted son, Henry. He seemed to have a penchant for calling bullshit, and that frustrated the Mayor, but it was still for the best.

Because if _he _remembered, which she had suspected was the case for a long time until it was finally just confirmed for her, any love she felt for Henry made him a liability.

No. She, Regina, would be the one with the upper hand this time. Evil would not lose, no matter what the storybooks said.

But who was truly evil anymore? Was she? Was _he_?

She had wondered, once upon a time, why he had created such a curse in the first place. For a man who was not a man to create a curse that could only be enacted by killing something you love…It spoke of deeper issues than Regina has the patience to analyze.

What she did realize, however, during the twenty-eight years of frozen time, was that he'd used her.

After all, what good was a curse that you can't even use? He had nothing and no one to love, so it was useless to him.

And had he known that she'd been keeping his weakness, his liability, hidden for all of these years…well, Regina doubted he would have had the guts to do what needed to be done, anyway.

After all, Rumplestiltskin had always been a coward.

Right after her very informative chat with Mr. Gold, the Mayor had headed straight for the hospital. She had to see her bargaining chip with her own eyes.

Pressing a code into a panel which was known only to herself, Dr. Whale and the Nurse who kept watch (the Nurse let the janitor into the hidden hospital basement every day, so that he would not have the code) Regina smiled slightly as she entered the cold, dark asylum wing.

After giving a rose to the trusted Nurse (Regina was feeling a bit nostalgic) they exchanged meaningless chit-chat before Regina let herself further into the hidden asylum to check on her prize.

Lifting a metal hatch set into a heavy door, Regina's smug smile grew at the sight before her.

The girl, _Belle_ he had once called her, looked up slowly through a tangled curtain of chestnut hair. Regina knew that the girl would not be able to see her face in the darkness, but it wouldn't have mattered, anyway. She was just as affected by the curse as everyone else in Storybrooke, save for herself and Mr. Gold. The girl would not remember. Not her past life, her father, or _him._

And even if she never had to use the girl against Gold (no, Rumplestiltskin) the knowledge that he would simply _die _if the girl didn't remember him or, better yet, if she rejected him, made Regina feel all that more triumphant.

But she had a feeling that her trump card would have to be used before too long. She could feel a tension in the air, taste the magic bubbling just under the surface. Rumplestiltskin, that bastard, had made sure that the curse could be broken. And he had made sure that Snow White and Prince James had known what to do. He had no allegiance to her, or to them, so she often wondered what his motivation had been.

Not to mention, he'd known exactly what he was doing when he'd brought Henry to her. Lonely and missing the person she had loved most, she had reached out to the one person in town with the money, clout and discretion to procure what she desired. Simply put, she had wanted a companion. But Gold had known whose child Henry was, just as he'd known Emma's name.

The Savior.

Regina made an unladylike sound in the back of her throat at the thought of the town's Sheriff.

It still amazed her that the confident and intimidating Gold was the former Dark One. Because by the time she had enacted the curse, he had been more monster than man. Her oldest nemesis, she had watched him slowly dissolve into madness. There had been a point, around the time he had brought that damned maiden into his home, when he had seemed to have control over the Dark One living inside of him. He'd flitted about the lands making his deals, always keeping an upper hand. He instilled fear and revulsion, but never really respect. When she had first heard rumors that the Dark One had a lover, a beautiful young thing who lived in his castle with him, she had merely laughed. She had eyes and ears everywhere, but talk was just talk and things often became skewed.

Until the day she decided to go see for herself. After all, she had never been able to find the knife that would control Rumplestiltskin, since the clever monster probably had it hidden deeper than even she was capable of locating. He would have known that it was the one thing she kept constantly vigilant for, because her power combined with his would have leveled the Enchanted Forest and everything else in sight.

Still…the rumors of a mysterious and happy girl seen through the curtainless windows of his castle had been enough to finally make Regina curious.

And lo and behold, she'd arrived just in time to watch the girl's departure. She was quite beautiful and sure-footed as she headed toward town carrying an empty basket.

Regina had played her like a harp from Hell. They spoke of love and curses, and of course the girl would have had no idea that Rumplestiltskin was not cursed with anything that he had not chosen for himself. It was just like him to have never told her the truth.

But Regina knew, or at least suspected. He would retain his power, because without it he was less than dust, and she would be the most powerful creature in all the lands.

She had been right, of course. The spectacle she had watched through her magic mirror had been quite entertaining.

Regina had been planning to plant ideas of illicit affairs with monsters into the head of the girl's father once she returned to her home. He would be so grateful that he would hand his daughter over to her with no fuss.

However, the girl didn't head for her homeland. Regina watched through her mirrors with quiet interest. The maiden headed in the _opposite _direction of her home.

She traveled, that girl. Regina eventually became bored watching her walk aimlessly, and finally made her move. She couldn't let this continue, and chance Rumplestiltskin changing his mind and choosing love over power. The pathetic lonely bastard probably would have, eventually. But Regina needed him to keep his powers…for now. Because, for now, there were things that only he could do for her.

She had nothing to do with him falling in love in the first place…that was his own fault. After all, no magic could make two people fall in love. But she had done what she could to make sure she finally had something to hold over the bastard's head.

One night, the girl (Regina had the hardest time using her proper name, because names held such power, and the girl was nothing to her but a pawn) was leaving a pub when she was snatched up. Vanished into thin air, anyone would have said.

But no one had been around to see.

Regina finally closed the hatch, shutting the girl out again.

With a graceful turn on her heel, the Mayor started for the exit. She had seen enough.

As much as she hated Snow White and made sure that Mary Margaret felt the brunt of the curse, she knew she would do everything she could to make sure that Rumplestiltskin never had his happy ending, either.

After all, he had been so compliant over a chipped teacup…she could only imagine what he would be willing to do for the actual girl.

Regina opened the secret door and left the asylum behind her once more, a plan already forming…

**THE END**


End file.
